Anti-War Protest

I've been to many anti-war protests. In my very conservative town, it was a way for all the rebel high schoolers to 'stick it to the man.' Last night, I attended the Anti-War protest lecture which followed the march that took place earlier that day. The same feel was there except instead of high school kids, it was a bunch of aging hippies that still wear their Birkenstocks and flowers in their hair proudly. What shocked me the most was how there were hardly any students at the meeting whatsoever. Colleges have a reputation of breeding liberals and campuses are normally very liberal and vocal about issues that affect them. Besides me, Pierson and Alyssa, there probably were only a dozen or so other college kids there. The lack of enthusiasm by the general student body was surprising and certainly the rally, at least the lecture could have used the addition of the younger kids. Generations working together could produce change but the aging hipsters that were clapping and screaming held their own in terms of really wanting change.
There was this one woman who was sitting two pews in front of me. She had grey (almost silver) hair pulled back in a braid that looked as though it has been in for sixty years. She wore glasses and hunched over or leaned on who I could only guess was her daughter from their striking resemblance. She clapped. She screamed. She truly wanted change and probably has wanted change for every war that she has lived through. My guess is that during each war, she was at every peace protest trying to show that war isn't the answer. I could see her at a rally during the Vietnam war, during the Gulf War, during every other war, wearing the same anti-war t-shirt and her hair in that braid. Her daughter (once again speculating that the woman next to her was her daughter), probably in her thirties, looked like she's been to her fair share of rallies and probably will follow in the footsteps of the grey-haired woman because even though she is only one person, she can help change.